


Stargate: Descendant

by DarkElleth



Category: Stargate - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-20 15:54:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14264472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkElleth/pseuds/DarkElleth
Summary: Set 20 twenty years after the events of Stargate SG-1, the events of 'Stargate: Descendant' follow the next generation of galactic explorers.Serena is a Lieutenant in the US Air Force working out of the SGC in Cheyenne Mountain. Despite her misgivings towards the programme, Serena quickly finds herself on the path of a legendary artefact that supposedly possesses incredible properties.Accompanied by her own team, Serena sets about navigating the dangerous road with her new friends and, aided by some familiar faces, she sets out to locate one of humanity’s greatest discovery since the Stargate.There’s also bound to be a few unexpected surprises along the way.*I do not own the Stargate franchise, this is a fan story written solely for entertainment*





	1. Prologue

"D'oh, is that the time already? Come on you, off to bed, you know how your mother gets when you miss bedtime."

The young girl who was curled up against her father's chest huffed in annoyance and ignored his words before retraining her eyes on the television screen where the late-hour episodes of the Simpsons had been running. Her father patted her impatiently on the top of her head, indicating that it was well beyond time to move to her room, and she huffed once more before sitting up and rubbing her eyes tiredly despite the fact that she wanted to stay up longer. Her father moved himself to an upright sitting position, raking a calloused hand through his short grey hair and yawned before brushing a finger against his daughter's cheek and giving her a final look. 

"Come on, Serena, bed," the girl hesitated once more, she realised that she was probably testing her father's patience but she really wanted to wait up. Her father raised a stern eyebrow and gave her a nudge to her feet. "Now."

Serena pouted but resigned herself to the inevitability that it was indeed her bedtime, her penguin slipper cladded feet shuffled her into the kitchen where she strained to fix herself a glass of water. Her height at the age of ten was still proving to be an issue when it came to reaching the higher cupboards in the kitchen. Her father was leaning against the doorframe and watching as his daughter attempted to waste time and abstain from the inevitable, he couldn't help the smile that twisted his lips upwards as he was immediately reminded of himself, however he was forced to intervene when Serena began dragging a dining room chair across the floor to stand on. Despite her young age, Serena's resourcefulness and determination often staggered her parents and they were often hard-pressed to keep up with her at times.

"Go get yourself settled in bed," he said kindly, easily reaching for the glass and ruffling Serena's hair with his other hand. "I'll bring it in to you."

"Thanks, dad," Serena yawned again and staggered off up the stairs to her bedroom. 

Serena passed the familiar family pictures that her parents insisted on displaying all the way up the staircase wall for anyone who came to visit to see, she always cringed internally when she saw her baby pictures proudly displayed. Those were there on her mother's insistence. Serena paused towards the top of the stairs, stopping to cast her gaze towards the family portrait. It was a couple of years old but not all that much had changed over those few years. 

Serena was a little smaller back then and was easily bundled into one of her father's arms with her small hands gripping to his shoulders for support, her blonde hair was in two braids and her blue eyes glistened with her endearing smile. Her father's other arm was snaked around her mother's waist and holding her close to his side. Her mother's hair was blonde and long, her skin fair and her eyes a sparkling sapphire - Serena's father often joked that she was a miniature replica of her mother. It was a fact that Serena's mother was away from home more than she was at home, not completely by her own choice as she an important person who was apparently needed everywhere, but it didn't stop Serena from missing her mother terribly. 

Deciding that she'd best not let her father catch her dawdling anymore than she already had, Serena hastily moved the rest of her way to her bedroom and dived onto the spongy mattress before shedding her slippers and wiggling under the covers as she heard her father's footsteps making their way to her open bedroom door. As promised he carried her glass of water and set it down on her bedside table, he then busied himself with tucking the covers around his daughter's chin and brushed a soft kiss to her pale forehead. 

"In the morning, when you wake up, your mom will be home," he muttered, smiling a little himself as he too had missed his partner greatly. He gently bopped Serena's small nose which caused her to giggle, Serena snuggled deeper into her pillow and he gently brushed her soft hair. "Goodnight, kiddo."

"G'night, dad," Serena mumbled as sleep suddenly weighed heavy on her and her lightly flushed eyelids began to flutter above her eyes. 

He watched as his daughter slipped into a dreamless sleep, her eyelids momentarily fluttering as her mind conjured up a dream for the night, and when he was sure that he wouldn't disturb her by standing up from her bed, he made his way to the light switch to plunge the room into darkness and pulled the door to. His weary legs carried him downstairs back to the sofa he and Serena had spent the entirety of the evening slumbering on in anxious anticipation of the return of the beloved mother of his child. 

*

Serena wasn't sure what awoke her from her deep slumber first. It could have been the sound of the front door snapping shut or the sound of hushed voices talking just below her but still carrying enough volume to make it to her ears. Serena sat up in her bed and pulled her knees to her chest as she attempted to strain her ears in order to catch the conversation that was taking place downstairs. Serena's spirits lifted when she immediately recognised her mother's voice. 

"It's been too long this time, Jack. Every time I come home it's like she's a different kid - I'm missing too much time with her."

"Then retire, Sam. We'll go away somewhere, with Serena, and we'll just get away for a bit."

There was a pause. "I think you're right." Another pause. "Is she asleep?"

"Yeah, I think she wanted to wait up for you but I told her no."

A woman's throaty laugh preceded quiet footsteps up the stairs and Serena hastily scuttled beneath her bedsheets once more before her mother saw that she was awake as entered the room. Serena lay perfectly still: her face slack and her breathing even, and listened as her mother's light feet made their way to Serena's bedside so she could squeeze onto the edge and lie down next to her daughter. She lay stock still as her mother gently caressed Serena's hair with delicate fingers, gentle lips brushed the top of her head and Serena felt herself being drawn into her mother's tight embrace. 

She didn't want to fall asleep again as she was afraid that her mother would be gone again, off on one of her adventures, but as she listened to her mother's content humming and steady breaths it was hard to fight against the tug of exhaustion and Serena found herself reluctantly into the most peaceful sleep she'd had for a while.


	2. Chapter 2

Stargate Command, hidden in the depths of Cheyenne Mountain, was most likely humanity's greatest and closely guarded secret and had been for almost twenty-five years. Or at least it was until the leaders of the world had decided that concealing Earth's most substantial and classified organisation from public knowledge was no longer a viable option and it was becoming harder and harder to explain away alien incursions and spaceship battles just above the planet's atmosphere. So it was announced to the world that the Americans had been governing an organisation titled as the Stargate Programme from within Cheyenne Mountain and had sent teams to other planets in the Milky Way with the sole purpose of gathering knowledge and technology to help defend the planet from alien threats and advance humanity technologically.

It was disclosed that Earth had stretched its reach into a completely alien galaxy to inhabit the city of a race of being that had seeded life in the Milky Way and had even incurred the wrath of several alien races who were hellbent on eradicating the scourge that was humanity. It was thanks to the Stargate Programme and their personnel and off-world teams for dealing with those issues and they were the sole reason for humanity's continued survival upon Earth, even if it was Stargate personnel who were mostly responsible for inciting such conflicts.

Since announcing itself to the world the Stargate Programme had become a popular topic and its history was taught in schools across the world, trying to get into the programme itself was a whole new level of competition and positions were strictly reserved for the best and brightest of applicants. Most of the top secret information about Stargate missions, and some other sensitive topics that related to the programme, had been deliberately held back and was restricted to need to know basis only; it was only mission critical information that was made public knowledge such as the primary function of the Stargate Programme and information about allies and enemies humanity had encountered during its galactic and intergalactic travels.

As a result of becoming public knowledge the Stargate administration had made sure to single out the heroes who had served and explored under the banner of Earth, in particular the front-line off-world team SG-1, and such individuals had been placed on pedestals to be revered and studied in the history books as the most elite and the best that humanity has to offer.

Serena knew all too well about humanity's best and brightest as she had grown up with top-secret mission reports disguised as bedtime stories and pastime events when there were no episodes of the Simpsons on. She'd grown up hearing about SG-1's encounters with the greatest enemies humanity would ever face: including the symbiotic race the Goa'uld and space vampires from another galaxy called the Wraith, but years of tales and being compared to her parents heroism and smarts had all but extinguished Serena's once burning desire to follow in her parents footsteps and continue their legacy. Despite all that Serena had still joined the Air Force just like her parents, she had still studied physics and graduated top of her class just like her mother and had still accepted the invitation to join the Stargate Programme just like her parents.

That was how she ended up in her own lab in one of the most important facilities on the planet, spearheading some of the most important research and yet wishing she could be anywhere else. It was no secret to anyone who knew about the Stargate Programme who Serena Carter-O'Neill was and where she came from, her parents Samantha Carter and Jack O'Neill had played a huge role in establishing the Stargate Programme and developing it to what it was. People had always expected great things from Serena, considering as she was as tactile as her father and just as smart as her mother, and this had always placed a somewhat unwanted spotlight on her throughout her entire career.

In the back of her mind Serena had always dreamed of a normal life, perhaps working in a civilian lab somewhere rather than in a lab located deep within the SGC. People were forever asking her about her parents, about the missions they went on, what they were like when they weren't saving the world and to say it was tedious was an epic understatement. Serena had quickly discovered that she was expected live a certain way, to her dismay, however it was difficult to argue with the opportunities that working at the SGC presented.

Where else could a person conduct 'research' with invisibility devices?

Serena was spinning on her laboratory stool and admiring the leather bracelet that she'd secured on her forearm, she couldn't help but imagine all the trouble she could get up to and all the pranks she could pull on the scientists that annoyed her the most. A patrolling marine paused outside of Serena's lab and looked in, he must have seen the stool apparently spinning on its own, and scanned the room with his eyes briefly before shrugging and moving on down the hall. It wasn't one of the strangest things to happen that week.

Serena supposed she should do some real work like actually start on one of the outstanding research projects that had been demanding her attention for at least a month but she couldn't bring herself to start, she was bored and had been sleeping in her base quarter's for a few weeks and was missing the outdoors and wished she had a window or something to look out of. Serena snapped her head up when someone walked into her lab and smiled mischievously when she saw who it was. She moved silently from her perch on her stool and tiptoed to stand in front of the young Sergeant with auburn hair and square glasses perched on her head, she was completely unaware that someone invisible was standing in front of her as she sorted through the documents in her hands.

Serena tapped the green gem on the invisibility device that deactivated the cloaking effect and yelled at the top of her lungs. "Boo!"

Sergeant Jane Hughes was used to Serena's childish shenanigans, they'd worked together for a few years and she knew that the Lieutenant had a silly sense of humour at times, but that didn't keep her from yelping in fright and throwing the documents instinctively at Serena as she materialised out of thin air. Serena braced herself against the paper that came flying in her direction and guffawed as she watched Jane's face turn from one of terror to raging annoyance.

"I'm going to kill you! Do you have any idea how long it took me to organise all these?" Jane cried and begrudgingly bent down to begin gathering the scattered sheets of paper into her arms.

"Sorry, I just couldn't resist," Serena offered lamely and sat down on her stool again, she removed the invisibility device from her arm and dropped it on the table.

Jane slapped the paperwork onto the table as well with a frustrated huff and began sorting through them with lightning fast fingers, Serena managed to catch glimpses of documents which detailed language translations and even printed photographs of alien dialects. Jane was a bit of a language buff and could speak at least five languages and recognise both Ancient and Goa'uld dialects, she was often called for off-world missions when a translator wasn't available. 

"Don't you have any work that you should be getting on with?" Jane enquired and snapped Serena from her thoughts. Jane began banging the pile of paper on its edges on the table in order to make sure they neatly lined up in her hands. 

Serena shrugged and spun on her stool like a small child and caught the edge of the desk to abruptly stop herself when she started to get dizzy. "I was actually using the invisibility device for a perfectly good reason," she said and when Jane snorted. obviously not believing a word of it, Serena pressed on with her explanation. "I've been hiding from Doctor Warren all day, he's been pushing me to go over the ZPM schematics that SG-4 pulled from an Ancient lab they stumbled across the other day."

"So why don't you?"

"I did but they're very basic schematics, I'd guess early designs, and no doubt he'd make me use them to try and build a ZPM myself. I'm fairly confident it'd be impossible, mostly because I'm not an Ancient, and I doubt we even have any of the raw materials they would use to build the technology."

"Well you can't hide from him forever," Jane responded.

Serena stuck out her tongue and went back to spinning on her stool. "I can try," she shot back and tossed the invisibility device to Jane who had to fumble to catch it.

Jane rolled her eyes and couldn't help smirking. "Sure, give yourself lethal radiation exposure just to avoid some scientist."

The phone mounted on the wall of Serena's lab began to ring, shrill and demanding. Jane rolled her eyes when Serena promptly refused to answer it in case it was Doctor Warren on the other end so she had no choice but to cross the room and answer the phone on Serena's behalf.

"Serena's lab ..." there was a pause and Serena stopped spinning to listen to Jane. "Oh, hello General ... yessir, she's right here," Jane held the phone out for Serena. "This one's for you."

Serena slid off of her stool and took the phone from Jane who whispered a 'catch you later' and left the lab with her paperwork tucked securely under her arm, Serena held the phone to her ear and greeted the General on the end of the line. The conversation was short and resulted in the General requesting Serena's presence in his office and that he expected her to be there within five minutes as there was an important matter that needed discussing. As Serena returned the phone to the wall she wondered if the General wanted to speak to her about the transfer request she had submitted a week previously. She had decided that the SGC wasn't the place that she wanted to be and was waiting to hear if her request to be transferred to another, less top secret, base had been approved by the brass - she had also failed to mention the transfer to her parents, knowing they would disapprove with her decision and try and talk her out of it.

Serena made sure her long sleeved, black top was completely tucked into her green combat trousers before pulling her matching green jacket on and marching out of her lab, dodging Doctor Warren as he had come to check up on her progress with the schematics and explained that she wasn't available to talk, before heading to the base elevator. Serena swiped her personnel card through the reader next to the grey elevator doors which had a large number nineteen printed on them in white, the doors slid open so she stepped inside and pushed the button for Level 27.


	3. Chapter 3

Serena marched out of the elevator and down the corridor to the General's office. It was busier on Level 27 than it was on her humble Level 19 as it was located above the Gate Room and Stargate Operations so technicians were bustling about as they were called around to fix a whole range of problems, every now and then an SG team would be spotted marching to the briefing room or heading down to the Gate Room to embark on their next adventure. Serena nodded politely to a few people she recognised and continued on her route to the General's office. She absent-mindedly straightened her uniform, smoothed a hand over her blonde hair to make sure nothing was scruffily sticking out in strange directions as she had taken a nap on her desk whilst she'd been playing around with the invisibility device. By the time she had reached the General's office door, she was fairly pleased she didn't look disreputable and was knocking on the door before waiting for the voice that allowed her entrance. Serena twisted the door knob and swung the door open so she could step inside, General Lorne looked up from a document he was signing and smiled when he saw the young Lieutenant standing in the doorway. He motioned for her to sit as he quickly scrawled his signature on something and set his pen down neatly and surveyed Serena with grey eyes.

General Evan Lorne was a superior officer that Serena genuinely respected, not because she had to but instead because he was a legitimately good person: he was kind, honourable and had had an outstanding career in the Pegasus Galaxy before being promoted and offered the position of leader of the SGC. Serena thought he was a very fair commander and was glad that he was reviewing her transfer request as he was likely to genuinely consider the matter rather than refuse it outright solely due to the reason of who she was.

"Busy day, Lieutenant?" Lorne smiled and Serena found herself wondering if he knew that she'd spent the majority of her morning messing around in her lab.

She didn't say any of that aloud and nodded her head and returned the smile. "None stop, sir," she said with a slight hint of sarcasm before turning serious. "Did you call me here to discuss my transfer request?"

The General's face fell slightly when Serena mentioned the topic of her leaving, she could clearly tell that he didn't want her to leave, but he quickly gathered himself and shook his head. Serena couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, she felt that Lorne had had more than enough time to go over her request, and found herself pondering the reason she was sat in the General's office.

"That is something that we need to discuss but that's not why I asked you here, Lieutenant," Lorne responded. "I need you to back up SG-3 on P3X-392."

Serena blinked. "By myself, sir? My team is still out of commission after that incident the other day and just to be one hundred percent clear: I had absolutely no way of knowing that that device was the Ancient equivalent of a stun grenade."

Loren couldn't help laughing as he was suddenly reminded of Jack O'Neill, his chortling was cut short by a knock at the door and a technician stuck their head round to speak to Lorne. "He's in the briefing room, sir."

The technician's head was dismissed with a nod and wave from Lorne and both the General and Serena turned to look through the window into the briefing room just in time to see someone walk in. Lorne excused himself and ordered Serena to stay where she was seated until he called her. Serena observed the stranger with curiosity. He was about her age but a little taller and with a mop of curly brown locks sat atop his olive-skinned head, his hazel eyes were narrowed as he concentrated on whatever Lorne was saying to him and it was a good thing too otherwise he may have noticed Serena quickly admiring his rather muscular physique that she suspected was somewhat concealed under the baggy SGC BDUs he was wearing. She wondered who he was. Serena guessed he was military simply by the way he stood, arms folded behind his back which was as straight as a plank of wood, his posture was rigid and unmoving. Serena's focus was drawn away in an instant when she saw Lorne waving for her to join them in the briefing room and she had no choice but to comply and rise from her seat and walk to the door. She caught his question just as she opened the door and smiled to herself.

"What exactly is a wormhole, sir?"

"It's more of a metaphor really," Serena offered with a knowing smile, walking to stand opposite the stranger. "If you think of space as an apple then the tunnels that the Stargate create to travel to other planets are much like the tunnels that worms burrow through an apple."

"Right."

Serena smiled slightly as she watched his hazel eyes glaze over, clearly having not understood a single word she'd said, and so she extended her hand towards him. "I'm Lieutenant Serena Carter-O'Neill."

"Carter-O'Neill, huh? You're not in any way related to Generals Samantha Carter and Jack O'Neill, are you?" he asked, a hint of excited apprehension could be heard in his voice.

Serena could barely hold back the eye roll. "Yes, they're my parents," she was desperate to steer the conversation away from her heritage when he let out a sound of awe. "It's usually good courtesy to offer a name in return."

The man remembered himself and shook himself out of his stupor. "Right, of course: name's Captain Dexter Goodwin, US Air Force." he offered somewhat apologetically in the hope his earlier rudeness wouldn't influence first impressions.

"Captain Goodwin will be escorting you to meet with Major Copeland's team on P3X-392," Lorne explained. "They've requested someone to take a look at the Ancient outpost they found on the planet."

Serena cocked an eyebrow. "Surely an archeologist would be more useful, I'm no expert when it comes to the ruins of an Ancient outpost."

"They said they think it might be a laboratory of some kind but any attempts to gain access to the facility has failed, plus you're the only person we have available with the technical expertise to get into the facility and you possess the ATA gene - you're the obvious choice for this mission," the General removed any doubt about Serena's purpose on the mission in one deft blow and she could only nod her head respectively. "You leave in twenty minutes. Go get your gear sorted, I'll make sure any technical equipment you'll need is brought to the Gate Room. We'll discuss your transfer when you return. Dismissed."

The two stood to attention as Lorne excused himself from the briefing room to return to his office and made a point of shutting the door, signalling there was nothing more to be discussed. Serena turned back to Dexter who was positively bursting with excitement and she couldn't help but smile too, his mood was too infectious. They stood a little awkwardly for a minute more before Dexter admitted that he wasn't sure what they were supposed to do next so Serena ordered him to follow her out of the briefing room.

"So, you new here?" Serena interrogated as they walked side by side to the armoury that was located on the level below them.

"Yes, arrived a few days ago - I haven't been assigned to a team yet," Dexter didn't seem too bothered by this, he struck Serena as the kind of guy who would be excited just to be on the base. "I had a quick tour on my first day but I'm still trying to get my bearings."

Serena handed her card over to the marine stationed outside the door to the main armoury, he inspected it and quickly checked her photograph, swiped it through the reader to unlock the door and returned it to Serena before saluting and allowing them to pass. "Well if you get lost, come find me on Level 19," Serena offered as all of that was happening and Dexter nodded his thanks.

They stepped into the armoury and Dexter was slightly taken aback by the sight before him. Stacked against the wall were weapons upon weapons, everything ranging from P90s to M16s to 9mms and the Goa'uld Zats, and followed suit as Serena began gearing up for the mission. She pulled the combat vest on first and made sure it was secured tightly around figure before clipping the thigh holster around her leg, she took the assigned equipment from the Sergeant inside the armoury and tucked everything from emergency bandages to a healthy sized block of C4 into her vest pockets before grabbing a P90 and a 9mm pistol that she secured inside her holster. Serena grabbed a few extra magazines and turned to Dexter who was also kitted up and looked ready to go.

They exited the armoury once they were certain they had all the equipment they would need, Serena adjusted her ponytail on her head so that it wasn't at risk of falling out and Dexter pulled a cap onto his head to cover his chestnut curls. They made it to the Gate Room with a few minutes to spare and General Lorne was waiting for them along with a technician with a backpack filled with equipment for Serena.

"Here you go, Lieutenant," the technician said and clipped the pack to the back of Serena's vest. "Everything you'll need is in there."

Serena muttered her thanks and turned to face Lorne who signaled that it was time to dial the Stargate so Serena and Dexter could depart to P3X-392, Serena shimmied a little as the Gate began to dial so that the pack sat more comfortably on her back. She'd seen the dialling sequence a hundred times before, seen how the chevrons ignited orange when the symbol was in position and the subsequent unstable energy vortex that erupted from the centre of the ring when the wormhole was established. Serena offered no reaction when the shimmering vortex shot forward from the Stargate but she watched with amusement as Dexter stepped back slightly as though he were worried that he would be consumed by the vortex. General Lorne wished them good luck and gave them permission to embark.

Serena touched Dexter's elbow and led the way up the metal ramp, which clunked slightly under her polished military boots, and paused at the water-like event horizon of the wormhole. She turned to watch as Dexter slowly followed her and observed how his eyes were transfixed on the portal behind her, his eyes danced with the reflection of the event horizon and she couldn't help watching as his face set into one of awe.

"This is cool, this is so cool," Dexter finally reached Serena and he stretched his hand out to touch the event horizon. "Did I mention this is cool?" he snapped his hand back as his fingers briefly made contact with the shimmering surface and he looked to Serena. "What is this?"

"It's called the event horizon of the wormhole. Once we walk through we will be dematerialised and transmitted as energy to the other side, where we are rematerialised as we exit the wormhole at the other Stargate," Serena explained as simply as she could and watched as Dexter bobbed his head as he attempted to follow her words. "It should only take us a matter of seconds to reach P3X-392 but we won't feel it, it'll feel completely instantaneous for us."

"So we just walk through?"

"Yep but I recommend exhaling just before you walk through, your first instinct will to be to inhale when you reach the other side," Serena offered and nodded to the event horizon. "Shall we?"

Serena was ready to step through but to her great annoyance Dexter hesitated so she roughly grabbed his forearm and forcibly dragged him forward with her, they both crossed the event horizon at the same time and within seconds they were stepping out onto an alien planet and into the first rays of sunlight that Serena had felt on her skin in days.


	4. Chapter 4

Dexter's slight gasping and spluttering was the first thing that Serena heard after the Gate disengaged and the puddle in the inner-ring dissipated into nothingness and the two were left standing in the middle of a wooded area. Serena had a quick look around: the trees reached high into the sky above her, the leaves a deep and rich jade, the air was pure and smelled of morning dew, the floor underfoot was spongy with moss and the grass was easily ankle high. Between the two of them they completed a quick sweep of the immediate area and concluded there were no signs of life around the Gate. Serena knew from experience that every planet was different and you never knew if you could be stepping through the Stargate directly into a hostile area or an uninhabited one, it was always best to keep your guard up at all times until it was established that the area was safe and non-threatening. Once satisfied that the area was secure, Serena grabbed the radio in the left breast pocket of her vest and held down the button before speaking into it.

"Major Copeland, this is Lieutenant Carter-O'Neill - please respond." Serena released the button and tapped her finger against the radio as she waited for a response.

" _I read you, Lieutenant - what's your position?_ " a voice crackled in response to her over the radio.

"Captain Goodwin and I have just arrived through the Stargate and we are ready to rendezvous with you,"

" _We're about two klicks directly south of the Stargate's position, keep walking until you come to a clearing and you'll see us_."

"Copy that, Carter-O'Neill out," Serena released the radio and puffed. "Man, I need to shorten my name. Let's move out."

"Shouldn't I be the one giving orders?" Dexter joked, his voice full of amusement.

Serena shrugged as they set off walking. "My experience beats rank for the time being," she replied, casting a look back and she saw Dexter chuckle under his breath. "First impression of an alien planet?"

Dexter paused as he looked around and drank in his surroundings. "Looks like Earth." he said shortly and if he didn't know that they'd just crossed a wormhole to another planet he would believe they were still on Earth. There was no sign of alien life to indicate otherwise.

"As the Ancients established the Gate Network on planets that were capable of supporting life, you'll find that they are quite similar to Earth: oxygen rich atmospheres, plant and animal life and so forth." Serena explained, she was beginning to wonder if Dexter had even gone through a briefing if he knew so little about anything to do with the Stargate.

They walked in silence for a while. Both of them were very conscious about the sounds around them as they listened out for signs of indigenous life or anything nefarious that may have been watching them from the thick undergrowth that filled the area surrounding them. Dexter was feeling slightly overwhelmed by everything and the idea that he had just travelled to a whole other planet in the matter of a few mere seconds was the craziest thing he'd ever experienced, none of his military training could have prepared him for exploring alien planets. He surveyed Serena and observed how she would swivel her head to check around them constantly, never once letting her guard down in case of an enemy attack, her hands were always secured around the body of her P90 and he noticed that she had deliberately positioned her finger over the trigger, likely due to the fact that she may have to start shooting at a moments notice.

"How does the Gate address thing work? You know with the symbols and stuff." Dexter piped up as he adjusted his cap on his head, the sun beating down on them was mostly filtered out by the canopy of trees above them but it was still quite warm.

"I have to ask: did you get the full briefing when you started?"

"Yeah, I just didn't understand the sciencey bits."

Serena smirked and tried to dumb down the explanation as much as possible. "Each Gate address is comprised of seven symbols. The first six symbols represent constellations and are used to extrapolate the destination's three-dimensional co-ordinates in space. The seventh symbol is what we call the 'point of origin' and that's unique to the planet you're dialling from, this symbol allows us to plot a straight line course to the destination. If you wanted to travel to another galaxy then you'd need an eight symbol address and a significantly greater amount of power to establish a connection."

"Simple enough," he meant that, the squirrelly-looking guys who had delivered the science aspect of his briefing had been way too complicated with their explanations and the information just soared over his head before he could figure out what they were telling him. "So did you always want to join the SGC?"

"No, not really." Serena answered honestly.

"But your parents are-" Dexter began but was quickly interrupted.

"My parents _expected_ me to join, they didn't realise that I never wanted to," Serena added a little bitterly.

"So what did you want to be instead?"

"A concert pianist."

"You're kidding?"

"I don't kid. I was always good, you should hear my rendition of Beethoven's _Für Elise_ ," Serena thought back to when she used to play the piano as a girl, she used to love the intricacies of music and how it could bring people to tears or make them laugh. There was always an order to music and something oddly reassuring in that there was a structure to it. "But my mom wanted me to direct my talents elsewhere so I studied physics instead and then my dad wanted me to join the Air Force so I did - all to keep them happy. I found that it's hard to establish your own identity when everyone already sees you as somebody else."

Dexter could sense that he'd, unintentionally, touched upon a sensitive topic so he didn't press for any further even though he was dying to hear all about Samantha Carter and Jack O'Neill and the adventures of SG-1. There was no denying that Serena was smart, without a doubt she much smarter than he was, but she also radiated a strange kind of intensity that gave him the distinct impression that she was someone he didn't want to cross and that he should do his best to avoid any conflict between them, Dexter figured it was probably best if they spent the rest of the walk to the rendezvous site in silence so that he didn't stumble upon any other sensitive topics about Serena's life.

She asked him about his life and his career in the Air Force and he explained that he loved the idea of structure and knowing his place when it came to the military. Ever since he'd first heard about the Stargate Programme Dexter had wanted to join so he worked hard to build up a near-perfect service record in the hope that one day someone would approach him to offer him a position at the SGC and of course when they had, he had answered yes without hesitation or regret.

They walked for the better part of half an hour before reaching the clearing that Major Copeland had described over the radio. The trees fell away to open out into a vast field of knee high grass and there was a large mountain range that stretched across the horizon, now that Dexter and Serena were no longer walking beneath the cover of the canopy they were finding the heat from the sun slightly sweltering and beads of salty sweat were collecting on Dexter's forehead. Despite the slight breeze that blew across the exposed portions of their skin, both Serena and Dexter were beginning to wish they had left their jackets behind. Dexter was scanning the area with his small pair of binoculars and when he spotted a group of SGC personnel, likely Major Copeland's team, he led the way forward across the field.

"Hand me those?" Serena requested the binoculars for herself and Dexter placed them in her outstretched hand. She held them just in front of her eyes and fiddled with the focus until she could clearly see Major Copeland's team. "Yeah, that's definitely the Major and SG-3. Think I can see the facility from here too."

Serena returned the binoculars to their owner and moved to match Dexters's pace, their footsteps hastened slightly as they hurried to join SG-3 where Major Copeland was waving at them and walking to meet them halfway. By the looks of things the rest of the team had established a perimeter around the entrance to the outpost and they were patrolling the area as was protocol, Serena walked up to Copeland and saluted and Dexter guessed that he should do the same. Copeland was a stereotypical military grunt: military buzz cut, take-no-crap attitude and a love for anything that exploded to boot, not to mention he hated any situation that couldn't be solved with brute force and needed to be solved by someone with a bit more technical know-how than a block of C4 and a detonator. Dexter properly introduced himself and Copeland looked him up and down like he was a piece of meat about to be devoured by a ferocious wolf.

"Follow me, Lieutenant - front door's this way," Copeland grunted and escorted Dexter and Serena to the entrance to the Ancient outpost. "Still not sure why the General wouldn't let me just pick the lock myself."

Serena rolled her eyes, careful to hide her disdain from the Major, at the whole run-and-gun attitude he had going on. "If by 'pick the lock' you mean slapping a stick of C4 onto the door and crossing your fingers when you blow it - I'd have to sincerely disagree with what I'm sure is a reliable tried and tested method."

"Are you giving me attitude, _Lieutenant_?" Copeland practically spat venom at Serena as he rounded on her.

Serena feigned complete innocence and pretended to be hurt. "I would never dream of doing such a thing, sir. I was merely trying to explain that such a destructive approach could very well damage whatever technology or valuable information may be inside the facility." she offered a small smile with the hope it might diffuse the tension a little.

Dexter was trying with all of his might to keep from laughing out loud at Serena's clearly disrespectful attitude towards Copeland's brutal way of thinking, he allowed a small smirk to ghost his lips before he managed to regain his steely composure but his eyes continued to twinkle with amusement. They followed Copeland to a set of crumbling stone steps which paved the way to small building, Serena guessed it was no bigger than one of the SGC's storage closets, there was a large red, metallic door with an Ancient control panel situated on the wall next to it. Serena jogged up the step, careful to keep from twisting her ankle on the loose stone steps, and unclipped the pack on her back before she closely inspected the condition of the control panel. Serena fumbled around in her pack and pulled out the tablet inside and unravelled in the interface wires before prying the cover of the panel so she could access the control crystals hidden beneath. She attached the wires to the crystals with the small clips on the end before plugging them into her tablet.

"Captain Goodwin, can you come here please?" Serena called to Dexter who was still at the bottom of the steps with Copeland. Dexter excused himself and jogged up to Serena who thrust the tablet into his unsuspecting hands and began rooting around in her pack once again in search of some tools.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Dexter rose an eyebrow in confusion.

"Hold it up so I can see it," she replied with an incredulous tone, believing her intentions were obvious. "I can't fix the panel and hold the tablet to monitor energy levels at the same time. Yep, hold it right there - _don't move it_."

Serena worked in silence with was only punctured by Dexter's sighs of boredom which he tried to suppress but failed miserably, he hadn't imagined his first off-world mission to consist of him holding a computer tablet in the air and being growled at when his arms tired a little and he would adjust the tablet's position.

"Huh."

"Progress report, Lieutenant." Copeland demanded as he joined Serena and Dexter at the top of the steps.

Serena straightened her back so she could face the Major completely, Dexter wasn't sure if the brief pause in Serena's work meant he had permission to rest his arms so he didn't risk it and kept the tablet raised in the air until Serena said otherwise.

"The main power conduit had been damaged but I've managed to successfully reroute power to the door controls through the secondary conduits," Serena explained, not bothering to pause or slow down when Copeland began uttering confused sounds and protests. "I was just about to try to open the door when I noticed that the security protocols are a little tighter than I would have expected."

"Does that mean you can't open the door?" Copeland couldn't help grinning at the idea that he might have the opportunity to use a more explosive method to gain entry to the facility.

"I didn't say that," Serena huffed. "I was just trying to point out that the extra security measures are strange but I should have this door open in a jiffy, it'll just take me a little longer than normal."

Serena snatched the tablet back from Dexter, irritated by the impatience of the Major who swaggered off to join his men, and began tapping at the screen. Dexter watched her work in fascination and his eyes were finding it difficult to keep up with the lightning fast movements of her fingers on the small, interactive keyboard on the touchscreen. He noticed how Serena's brow was furrowed in concentration and he couldn't help wondering if she always worked with that expression on her face.

"I'd have thought that if this was an Ancient laboratory, it would be a bigger building." Dexter made a good point but it was something that Serena had already considered and had even managed to formulate a potential explanation.

"My best guess is that the actual bulk of the facility is hidden underground," she said simply. "I've read reports of Ancient scientists who went to all the trouble of hiding their laboratories by concealing them behind fake walls." Serena tapped a few more times at the keyboard and initialised what she hoped was the command for the door to slide open, she mentally crossed her fingers that her quick patch of the power conduits wouldn't cause them to short-curcuit, and called gleefully when the old metal door slid open when commanded. " _Alohomora_."


	5. Chapter 5

Dexter congratulated Serena on her good work and switched the torch that was mounted on his P90 and directed the beam of light into the small room that the door had revealed. He could confirm Serena's theory about the main body of the facility being underground when he observed a set of metallic steps that led down into the dark, there were no visible light switches that could be activated to help pierce the darkness and the walls of the room seemed plain and uninteresting. Serena packed her equipment away and called Major Copeland over, she stepped inside without bothering to wait for permission and smiled when lights sprang to life as the facility sensed her presence as she crossed the threshold - or more specifically the ATA gene that she possessed which allowed her to operate Ancient technology. Dexter struck a defensive pose as he scanned the immediate area believing there to be an intruder until Serena explained that the facility was activating because of her, when he heard this he relaxed but still held on tight to his P90. 

Copeland was still outside barking orders at his men to maintain the perimeter and radio if there was any sign of trouble, he then joined the other two who had paused at the top of the stairs on Serena's command.

"I just want to mention that there could be some security measures in place inside the facility itself, so just ... you know ... watch your step and _don't touch anything_ until I give the all clear." Serena said casually as she began to descend down into the depths of the unknown.

Dexter and Copeland briefly exchanged a look and raised their eyebrows after Serena's disappearing back and hastily followed her downstairs, their weapons raised in the air, and they kept their eyes peeled for signs of traps or sensors that might activate alarms of a lockdown or something more sinister. When Copeland inquired further about what not to touch, Serena couldn't resist joking about raised floor tiles like something out of Indiana Jones and then added in a serious tone that he should just keep his hands and feet to himself if he didn't want to risk losing them - Dexter prayed that she was just playing around. 

The steps lead down to a larger and longer room which was filled with hanging glass screens and Ancient computer terminals that, judging by the thick layer of dust that had gathered on them, hadn't been touched for an extremely long time. The lights which ignited in the room cast a slight blue glow on the grey walls and floor and Serena stared around in wonder, she always got a strange jittery feeling when she was in close proximity to Ancient technology and it was like she could feel technology accessing her mind, her mother had explained that it was likely due to the mental link that the technology required in order to be activated. 

It appeared that the facility was indeed a laboratory of some kind and Serena pictured Ancient scientists sat around the terminals, consumed by their research and pursuit of knowledge, and found herself eagerly drawn to uncovering the secrets that the facility held. Serena approached one of the terminals and reached out to touch it whilst simultaneously mentally willing it to activate under her touch, the crystal controls illuminated and the hanging screen was suddenly filled with Ancient writing which scrolled across in a continuous stream. 

"What have you got, Lieutenant?" Copeland demanded as he watched Serena tap away at the control crystals, they erupted in high-pitched beeps overtime they were touched, and waited for her to respond.

"Well I've deactivated the security protocols so we're not in danger of triggering a lockdown or anything," Serena eyes narrowed as she tried to concentrate on translating the text that was passing before her. "It looks like there's a lot of data saved on these terminals so it's gonna take me a while to translate everything and figure out what the Ancients were researching here. I suggest letting me download the data onto a hard-drive so I can take it back to the SGC and do a more detailed analysis there."

"Can't you just do it here?" Copeland complained.

"Well for starters I didn't pack my Ancient dictionary and, even though I'm an incredibly intelligent individual, my grasp of the language isn't all that great. Trust me it'll be less of a headache and a million times quicker to take all of this home." Serena retorted abrasively and ignored the vexed look that Copeland shot in her direction. She knew it was probably best to refrain from antagonising a superior officer but she couldn't help herself, it was too much fun to watch the way she could get under his skin.

Serena dug the external hard-drive out of the equipment pack and plugged the lead into an external port located just under the terminal, she tapped a few times at the crystals in order to trigger the download and stood up and folded her arms.

"Now what?" Dexter quizzed, he'd let his P90 drop against his stomach once they had established that there was no threat in the facility and had his hands clasped together and resting on the stock of his weapon.

"We wait for the data to download then there's no reason we can't scoot back home," Serena illustrated and moved to one of the other terminals so she could begin attempting to make sense of the data they would be taking home with them. "We should be back in time for a late lunch. I seem to remember they've got turkey sandwiches in the mess today."

There was a crackle from Copeland's radio and everyone paused to listen to the voice that erupted out of it. " _Sir, Garrett's just spotted a battalion of Jaffa being dropped off about a klick east of our position - what do you want us to do?_ "

Serena pulled a face. "Jaffa? What would they be doing here?" she murmured quietly but Dexter merely shrugged in response - he didn't have any answers either.

"Hold your positions, I'm coming out to you now," Copeland barked into his radio and then spoke directly to Serena. "Hurry this up, Lieutenant. I don't fancy hanging around here if this goes south."

Serena pursed her lips as Copeland retreated out of sight back to ground level, she turned back to the console and began sarcastically mimicking the Major. " _Hurry this up, Lieutenant_. Sure let me just wave my magic wand, while I'm at it why don't I learn to fly too." 

Dexter had wandered over to the stairs and was peering up to see if he could see anything and straining his ears in case there was anything going on up on the surface. "So these Jaffa, they're supposed to be allies, right? I mean it's not like they're going to attack us, right?" Serena noted that he sounded a little on edge and she looked up to offer him a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, they're allies. Who knows they might be here looking for this place too, in which case it'll probably just mean that we share the intel and go our separate ways," Serena proposed logically, she hoped her reasoning would be enough to chase away the slight glint of fear in his eyes.

Serena checked the progress of the download and was pleased to see it was mostly complete, about eighty percent of the way there, she was beginning to read a particularly interesting section of text about Ascension when a hurried voice started yelling out of her radio and she jumped out of her skin before fumbling with it.

" _Lieutenant, please tell me you've got the data!_ " Copeland's small voice bellowed and was accompanied by the distinct sound of Jaffa energy weapons being discharged and the sound of their impacts reverberated down the walls of the laboratory. 

"That definitely sounds like Jaffa staff weaponry," Serena uttered to Dexter before grabbing at her radio so she could reply to Copeland. "Almost there, just give me a couple more minutes."

" _We might not have that long! I'm counting at least a dozen hostile Jaffa bearing down on our position_."

"Dexter, cover the entrance," Serena commanded. "I don't fancy getting shot in the back whilst I'm finishing up here."

There was a distinct beep over the sound of explosions which were gradually moving closer and closer, Serena bundled the equipment in her bag and reattached it to her vest before powering down the systems and arming herself with her P90. Together she and Dexter headed back to the surface and into the small battle which was raging outside. 

SG-3 had taken up defensive positions behind large chunks of rubble that were likely once built up as pillars before they had crumbled to the ground, they were firing rapid bursts towards the tree-line and ducking behind cover when energy blasts came their way in response. Serena and Dexter dropped down behind a free piece of rubble and assisted with holding back their attackers, Serena was peering down her scope to try and get a proper look at the Jaffa but found herself targeted by weapons fire so she had no choice but to hunker down behind the large piece of rubble.

"Captain Goodwin!" Copeland called a few metres away from them as he was in the middle of reloading his P90. "We'll draw the enemy's fire and you and the Lieutenant skirt around, keep to the tree line, and get to the Gate and call for reinforcements."

Dexter grabbed Serena by the shoulder of her vest and hauled her out of cover when Copeland gave the signal and they made a dash for the tree line as ordered. Their move went seemingly unnoticed as no one tried to kill them as they ran, the enemy were probably either being hit by bullets or doing their best to hide from the bullets, and they managed to make it to the dense forestry without incident. They kept low with their weapons raised and moved quietly and quickly, Serena tried to think that the fact that she could still here P90 weapons fire was a good thing because it meant that SG-3 was still alive and fighting. They managed to make it to within throwing distance of the Stargate when Copeland starting shouting over the radio for them to hurry up and then something heavy clattered into Serena's side and sent her flying to the ground.

The force of the impact managed to knock the breath out of her lungs and she struggled against the large, muscular Jaffa that was trying to drive a rather intricately graved dagger through her chest. She pushed against his hands with all of her might and wiggled so she could free one of her legs from underneath her assailant's body which she then brought her knee up to collide violently with a rather tender part of the Jaffa's anatomy. He grunted and pulled his weight back slightly which gave Serena enough leverage to headbutt his nose and shove him off of her with one fell swoop. Her P90 had been tossed aside during the scuffle so she yanked out her sidearm and practically emptied half the clip into the Jaffa's chest. 

Breathing hard to attempt to draw breath into her screaming lungs, Serena recovered her P90 and looked around whilst trying to ignore the rising sense of fear in her chest when she realised that Dexter was no longer there. She had lost track of him during her altercation with the Jaffa and she was desperately calling his name in the hope that he would hear her and respond that he was okay. Serena's eyes fell to a strange set of tracks that had been imprinted in the dirt, something that looked an awful lot like drag marks and a set of tracks on either side which she guessed belonged to a pair of Jaffa who had dragged Dexter off between the two of them. She cast one last disgusted look down at her fallen enemy before setting off at a run in the direction the tracks led. 


	6. Chapter 6

Serena had been running for a good five minutes before she heard it. At first she just thought it was a bit of ringing in her ears as a result of being in close proximity to the impact of the energy blasts from the Jaffas' weapons but as time went on Serena was certain that the buzzing was getting louder and closer. It was a strange sound, a high pitched whirring to be exact, and she found herself drawn to investigate it further. Serena followed her ears which led her directly towards a small clearing in the forest and she was forced to duck behind an old, mouldy tree stump when she heard voices. Carefully peeking over the top of the stump she immediately spotted two burly Jaffa, each armed with Zat guns which were trained at Dexter who'd been stripped of his weapons and forced to his knees, there was a figure who had his back to Serena and his arm was outstretched and clearly sporting a ribbon device. The high pitched whirring that Serena had been trying to place, believing she had heard it before somewhere, was the result of the hand device utilising its ribboning power which was being directed at Dexter's forehead. 

Serena had spent years studying and memorising the technical specifications of Goa'uld technology and knew the capabilities of a ribbon device in detail, however she had never seen one being used on a live subject. The ribboning power was often used by the Goa'uld when they were torturing a rather unfortunate soul, be it for enjoyment or just sadistic pleasure, being subject to the effects for a short period of time only resulted in paralysing pain whereas extended exposure was a definite death sentence. Serena watched in horror for a moment as the energy stream slithered through Dexter's forehead from the central gem it originated from, his face was contorted in agony as he desperately tried to resist the torture technique - Serena knew she had to find a way of getting him free before the damage became permanent.

Serena fumbled with one of the pockets of her vest and revealed a stun grenade, she pulled the pin and lobbed it towards the Jaffa. She felt bad for a second as she covered her ears and felt the explosion shake the air around her, she had been hoping that Dexter might recognise the small canister and be able to cover his ears and close his eyes before it went off. Serena rolled over the top of the tree stump and immediately opened fire on the Jaffa who were stumbling around shaking their heads and trying to rub the temporary blindness from their eyes, the impact from the bullets sent them stumbling before collapsing to the floor lifelessly. Serena turned her attention to Dexter who was rolling around on the floor, cursing wildly as he took turns between rubbing his forehead and his eyes, the Goa'uld was quick to recover and had turned his attention to Serena. She knew what was coming next. The ribbon device was pointing in her direction, the central gem glinting at her maliciously, and she had no choice but to barrel roll out of the path of the incoming telekinetic blast which exploded against one of the trees behind her instead as she deftly dodged it. 

"Put the hand down!" Serena bellowed as she got back to her feet and aimed her P90 so her reticule was hovering smack dab over the Goa'uld's forehead. Whoever he was, he seemed to get what Serena was threatening him with because he lowered his outstretched hand with an evil smirk plastered over his face. "I feel safer already. Now, who are you?"

Serena had read mission report after mission report on the SG teams' encounters with the Goa'uld when they were a dominant force in the galaxy, she had practically committed their descriptions to memory but nothing sprang to mind as she examined the Goa'uld which stood before her. His face was riddled with scars and it was as though someone had set his face on fire some time ago, his features were gnarled and he looked like something out of nightmare, his eyes were fiery garnets set in his skull and his deformed lips were stretched across a set of yellowing fangs. Serena certainly had no idea who the ugly beast was.

"Insolent human! I am your God," he began with the usual 'you are all doomed' speech and Serena couldn't help but roll her eyes as he continued talking. "It would seem during my absence that your ignorance has been allowed to grow, do not worry for I have returned and you will all bow before me."

Serena peeled one of her hands away from her weapon to make her favourite 'blah blah' hand gesture, much to the Goa'uld's displeasure, and laughed in spite of the situation. "I'm sorry, you're going to have to be a bit more specific," she joked and watched as the Goa'uld began clenching and unclenching his fists. "'Cause I know how you guys can change hosts just as often as my Aunt Vala changes her outfits. Plus writing down 'evil, narcissistic Goa'uld with the butt-ugly face is an awful lot of words for a mission report'. I'm like my dad; like to keep things short and as succinct as possible. Anyway you were saying: doom and gloom, false god nonsense - please continue your monologuing."

"Enough! Your voice is grating and annoying," the Goa'uld growled and tried to raise the ribbon device once again but thought better of it when Serena tightened her grip around her P90 and he presumed that testing her resolve would likely lead to his death. "Do you not recognise the symbol of your God?"

He was pointing to the dead Jaffa around them and Serena risked peeling her eyes away for a second so they could flicker over the foreheads of the fallen and then locked them back on the Goa'uld. Strangely the Jaffa were sporting the jackal-like symbol of Anubis on their foreheads and Serena couldn't help but chuckle.

"Last I heard, Anubis was getting his ass handed to him by some Ancient - there's no way you're him," Serena stated shortly but blanched slightly when she saw the Goa'uld's lips turn up at the mention of Anubis' name. "Oh ... _shit_."

Anubis cackled demonically, his twisted features contorting into something terrible. "It is true: Oma Desala did her best to stop me and she finally managed to send me all the way back to human form. I may be weak and my forces small but pretty soon I shall once again sweep through this galaxy as an unstoppable force of nature and you shall watch your planet burn when I-"

_Bang. Thud._

"You guys talk too much," Serena remarked humourlessly as she stood over Anubis' defunct body and she stared at the neat bullet hole which sat between what was left of his eyebrows. _Heal that_ , she thought bitterly and studied his shocked features a moment more: eyes wide open and mouth hanging ajar as though he were about to beg for mercy. 

Serena ran over to Dexter who had managed to push himself into sitting position and was blinking furiously as the vision slowly returned to his eyes and his ears finally stopped ringing painfully. She looped an arm under one of his shoulders and helped lift him to his feet, he staggered slightly and clutched to Serena's shoulders as he steadied himself before nodding that he was okay to stand by himself. Serena returned to retrieve Anubis' ribbon device and couldn't help the small smile which crept across her face.

"I've always wanted to study one of these things," she declared gleefully and slipped her hand into the delicate metal and positioned the device on her left hand which she mockingly raised and struck a dramatic pose.

Dexter flinched and covered his head with his arms before screaming. "Watch where you point that thing will you?"

Serena remembered herself and mumbled apologetically before lowering her hand and joining Dexter at his side, she twisted her hand so she could keenly inspect the ribbon device. "Don't worry I wouldn't be able do activate it, don't have the naquadah in my bloodstream. I wonder if Anubis made any alterations to this thing, I reckon I could whip up a workaround of some kind to test its functions."

Out of nowhere came four men crashing through the dense forestry. SG-3 looked a little worse for wear: their faces were smudged with dirt and a few patches of crimson blood, their uniforms were ruffled and they were breathing pretty hard. Copeland locked eyes with Serena who internally flinched under the intense scrutiny that was burning into her face. Copeland spotted the three dead bodies on the ground just behind Dexter and Serena and flicked his eyes back to the two young people in front of him, Serena hid her ribbon-device-clad arm behind her back consciously.

"Where the hell were those reinforcements?" Copeland could barely keep his voice steady as it quivered with rage and Serena could feel the shameful flush creeping into her cheeks. It was true she'd been so caught up in the moment with rescuing Dexter that she had completely forgotten that SG-3 needed back-up.

"I'm sorry, sir," Serena offered sheepishly and indicated the dead form of Anubis and his Jaffa. "They grabbed Dexter and Anubis was going to kill him - I had no choice -"

"Anubis? He's dead, isn't it he?" one of Copeland's subordinates piped up.

"Well he is now, yeah." Serena nodded and gave Anubis' limp leg a kick to prove her point.

"We could have captured him and taken him back for interrogation," Copeland growled and jabbed an accusing finger in Serena's direction who glowered in response. "You had no authority to execute a potentially valuable source of information, imagine the Ancient knowledge we could have accessed. I'm sure the Tok'ra would have got a kick out of performing an Extraction Ceremony on the guy."

"With the greatest of respect, Major - bite me," Serena's anger flared-up to a whole new level and she desperately tried to control the dangerous tremor that was racking her hands. "He was too dangerous to be kept alive, seeing as he nearly destroyed every living thing in this galaxy when he was last around. I'm sure the General would agree with me too. Why don't we continue this conversation back home where we can ask him?"

Serena turned on her heel and stalked off, leaving the Major to gape after her in shock as he was clearly not used to being challenged by a subordinate, and Serena couldn't help grinning to herself at the image of Copeland trying to hide his embarrassment from his men before trudging after her. Serena reached the DHD and began inputting the Gate address for home, Dexter had caught up with her first and was ready to transmit their IDC code when the wormhole established. 

"Thanks for saving my ass back there," Dexter said softly and Serena paused in the middle of the dialling sequence. "And for what it's worth, I think you made the right decision back there."

Serena could feel the appreciative blush creeping into her cheeks and gave her head a little shake, hoping that Dexter hadn't seen it. "No problem." she responded warmly and resumed the dialling sequence, hitting the large activation dome and watched as the Stargate activated.

Once Dexter confirmed that he had transmitted their IDC, they walked towards the event horizon without bothering to wait for Copeland and his team to catch up to them - they could miss the outgoing wormhole for all Serena cared. As she stepped across the event horizon she secretly prayed the Stargate would disengage and that Copeland would have to redial the address. However that wasn't the case. Not a few moments after Dexter and Serena had rematerialised and made it to the bottom of the ramp did Copeland and the rest of SG-3 follow them through. General Lorne was ready to greet them and welcomed them back home with a warm smile and then he saw the filthy condition SG-3 were in and he shot them a quizzical look.

"What on earth happened out there?" Lorne questioned them and watched curiously as Serena disentangled her hand from the ribbon device as inconspicuously as possible.

Major Copeland was still fuming from his confrontation with Serena and was quick to start brandishing accusing fingers and Serena had to stop herself from snorting out loud and smacking the man across his reddening face. Lorne quickly shot a sideways glance to Serena and raised his eyebrows at her, she merely shrugged and was glad to here the General would debrief SG-3 first and speak to Serena and Dexter about an hour later. Serena quickly escaped from the Gate Room, explaining that she was going to start going over the data stored on the hard-drive, whilst Dexter looked around uselessly with no idea what he should do until it was time for his debrief.


	7. Chapter 7

"Major Copeland isn't too happy with you, Lieutenant."

Understatement of the century, General, Serena thought to herself and fought to keep her amusement off of her face knowing it would only land her in more trouble and it wasn't worth it, plus she'd probably get an earful off of her parents if they found out how she'd acted towards a superior officer in the field. That would be punishment enough. She could already imagine the endless lectures on respect and she shuddered at the thought. Serena recalled the lividness on Copeland's face when she had passed him in the corridor on her way to the briefing room, it was a wonder that he hadn't pinned her to the wall and throttled the entertained expression right off of her facial features. Fortunately Dexter had appeared just in time to run interference and allow Serena to avoid any confrontation so she'd merely waggled her eyebrows acrimoniously at Copeland before heading into the safety of the briefing room.

Lorne had done all he could to keep from sighing with despondency when Major Copeland delivered an incredibly thorough and detailed recount of the events that had taken place on the planet, and his stomach knotted with dismay when he'd heard the rather acidic report of Serena's blatant insubordination. There was no denying that Lorne had a soft spot for the girl, he'd served for a brief time with her mother on Atlantis and her father during his early days at the SGC, and was often at awe with her obvious brilliance and ability but there was no denying that she could be a massive pain in the ass at times. Even when Copeland had described her as being deliberately rude and offensive, he had found it difficult to believe. Headstrong, definitely, but I doubt offensive, he had thought to himself but he didn't share his disagreement with the room.

"I apologise for my lack of eloquence, and forgetting to request reinforcements, but I will not apologise for the rest," Serena was leaning back lazily in one of the black chairs that were positioned around the briefing room table, her hands clasped across her stomach and her right ankle perched on top of her left knee - she didn't look like she'd just been in a firefight or that she'd executed a Goa'uld without a second thought. "I truly believe that killing Anubis was the only logical decision to be made."

"I agree with you, Serena." Lorne said with an agreeing nod.

Serena's mind stuttered a little, had she heard that right? She cocked an eyebrow and leaned in slightly so that she would definitely catch his next words. "I'm sorry?"

"I agree with you," Lorne repeated and Serena nodded carefully as though she was backing herself into some kind of trap. "You did what you had to do to save Captain Goodwin's life and in the process managed to rid the galaxy of one of its most formidable enemies - I'd call that a win win."

Dexter felt brave enough to speak at last. "So what now?"

Lorne considered his question for a moment. "Obviously I'll need to sort some kind of punishment for the Lieutenant regarding her insubordination ("Please sir, don't make me write lines," Serena muttered sarcastically.) but the obvious next step is to translate the data you recovered from the Ancient laboratory. I'll leave that up to you, Serena. Dismissed."

Serena and Dexter rose from their seats and exited the room. Serena had her lips pursed and she felt as though that had all been far too easy, she hadn't even been yelled at and found that odd - not that she was really complaining. They walked to the base elevator together and chatted about Dexter's first mission and his first encounter with Jaffa and a Goa'uld, not to mention his first near-death experience, and he was broaching the subject of a late lunch when the doors slid open and they stepped into the elevator together.

"I can't. I should probably start on that hard-drive we brought back in case there's some incredibly useful information on it," Serena declined politely, if not a little regretfully as she was quickly beginning to enjoy Dexter's company.

Dexter nodded knowingly before his hazel eyes suddenly twinkled with an idea and he snapped his fingers. "How about I bring food to you? That way you can eat and do your thing with the hard-drive. Who knows, I might even learn something too."

Serena cocked an eyebrow. "Do my thing?" she echoed.

"Decode, translate, decipher - whatever. Any preference on Jello?"

"Blue. My lab is Level 19."

"I know, I remember."

As the elevator stopped on Level 22 before Serena's stop, Dexter left her alone so he could get them food and just before the doors slid shut he flashed her a warming smile that made Serena's spin tingle. She shook herself, Get a grip woman. Don't even go there. It was a slow ride in the elevator and a few bickering scientists joined her at Level 21 and paused their argument to glare as Serena frantically tapped her foot in the hope that it would cause the elevator to move faster. When her stop finally came, she was out the doors in a flash and speeding down the corridor to her lab. 

Unfortunately there was somebody waiting for her when she got there. 

"Doctor Warren." Serena nearly tripped over her feet in surprise. 

The middle-aged balding man pushed his spectacles a little further up his nose as he surveyed Serena with a slight look of contempt. "I thought you were supposed to be looking over those schematics I forwarded you."

Serena dragged the hair tie out of her locks and relished the feel of her hair falling loose and the ache that had been building on her scalp was given some relief. She ruffled her blonde hair and sat down on her stool before looking Doctor Warren in the face. 

"I've got other work to do at the moment," she explained and watched as Doctor Warren's face pinched. "Look if you've got a problem, take it up with General Lorne."

"We might finally be able to produce our own working ZPM technology and you're not gonna help?" Doctor Warren accused venomously.  

Serena pinched the bridge of her nose as she started to feel a stress headache building. "Look Doc, I've had a tremendously bad day already. General Lorne needs me to do something else so I'm sorry that I'm not available to assist you right now but you're just going to have to cope without me for now."

Warren huffed a few more times for good measure before stalking out with his head held up high, Serena was sure she heard the words 'goddamn' and 'military' leave his mouth before his vanished from sight, she sighed with relief and booted up her laptop and retrieved the hard-drive from her equipment bag that she'd dropped off before attending the debriefing. Making quick work of connecting the wires from the hard-drive to the laptop port she tapped a few keys and watched the progress bar pop up on her screen which informed her that she could view the data in a few minutes while computer synced compatibilities, Serena decided that she wasn't in the mood for slow so she smashed the laptop buttons a few more times with a growl hoping it would register her impatience. 

No such luck. 

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Serena looked up as Jane swanned through the door and she made a noise in her throat that made Jane falter in her steps a little. "Why does the whole base suddenly want to hang out in my lab?" she complained noisily like a small child, her clear exaggeration of the situation only made Jane shake her head at her friend's expense. 

But quickly enough Jane's expression switched from one of mirth to one of deep concern that had her delicate eyebrows knitting together and her full lips set into a hard line. "Heard you got into it pretty good out there today. You okay?" her voice was low and dripping with disquiet as she surveyed Serena with serious eyes.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me," she was genuinely touched by Jane's sudden show of affection and gave her a corny and reassuring thumbs up that made her friend laugh, understanding that Serena was in fact absolutely fine. "I mean killed a super evil bad guy, nobody died, can't really argue with that."

"What you doing?" Jane asked, leaning so she could see the Ancient writing that was now flowing across the laptop screen and her inquisitive eyes began to scan and translate. 

"Going through the data I pulled from the Ancient lab, could use an extra set of eyes to be honest."

"Sure. I'll go get my books. Be right back."

Jane patted Serena on the shoulder and left to collect her belongings. She was grateful that someone was offering to help her as she knew the task before her was destined to be laborious and extremely tedious, Serena could already envision the look on Jane's face when she would return: sparkling eyes that were overflowing with curiosity and excitement at unlocking the secrets which lay before them, pouring herself over her precious books and spending the whole night working side-by-side in the lab until someone had to come peel them away from their research. However Serena was still in her gotta-go-fast mood and wasn't feeling up to devoting a sleepless night to reading a dead language so she swiped at the keyboard a few times as she decided the time was ripe to test one of her little side projects. A few moments later, Jane returned with her notes and books held in the air above her head. 

"Okay, I've got every book I own that will help with the translation so let's get to work!" she declared triumphantly and dropped them down on the table before pulling up one of the spare stools so she could sit on it.

"That won't be necessary." Serena grinned.

Jane cast a wary glance in Serena's direction. "What do you mean?"

"You know I don't know why we're still relying on dusty old textbooks when we have all this technology, but not to worry I've got this thing sorted."

"What are you going on about?"

"I have successfully written a fully comprehensive Ancient translator, admittedly it's taken me quite some time to complete, but it will finish a full translation of the data in ..." she glanced at the progress bar that was spinning on the laptop screen. "... about two minutes. You can get rid of those dusty birdcage liners and prepare to meet the future of Ancient translation."

"You can't just write a programme, there's so much more to languages than words -" Jane attempted to protest as Serena childishly stuck her fingers in her ears.

"Sorry I can't can't hear you over the sound of my awesome translation programme which has just finished translating," she let loose a cocky laugh and cast her eyes back to the screen and her face was suddenly completely void of any celebration and had become one of complete disgruntlement. "Ah ... well ... hmm ..."

"It didn't work did it?" it was Jane's turn to laugh.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, it's probably just a dodgy line of code - easily fixed," Serena silenced Jane's snickering with overly loud keystrokes before scoffing. "For crying out loud!"

"Care to share with the rest of the class?"

"Either the programme didn't work or the Ancients really were researching octopus nipples."

"Why don't we stick with the ol' trusty birdcage liners for the time being?"

They divided the work equally between them and positioned themselves so that they were sitting next to one another at Serena's table in the lab. Even though Serena had a fair grasp on the language of the Ancients, there was no doubt in her mind that Jane would finish her translations first and then she'd have to assist Serena. When it was discovered that Serena had inherited the ATA gene from her father, her mother had insisted that it was important for her daughter to study the language so that if she came in contact with the technology she wouldn't be restricted by the language barrier. Years of lessons with none other than Doctor Daniel Jackson had given her a decent understanding but the only languages that Serena had ever truly understood were the ones that technology and science spoke. 

Dexter returned not too long after with tray full of blue jello and cups of coffee, he was excited to meet a new person and listened in fascination to Jane who was more than happy to talk his ear off about all of her credentials and was even getting a basic crash course in Ancient as Serena was just starting on her second pot of jello. As Jane was starting on a brief lecture on the history of the Goa’uld language, Serena looked up briefly and could have sworn that Dexter quickly winked at her. She ducked her head to hide the blush that was creeping up her neck and tried to focus on her work. 

Don’t get involved, you’re leaving soon, she told herself sternly and refused to look up from her laptop screen for the rest of the night.


End file.
